My ped. thought it was based on the symptoms I gave her over the phone. The ER dr. essentially diagnosed it from a picture and my descriptions. He had a high fever/virus a week ago that lasted 24-48 hours. then some basic ear pain but no ear infection. then half his face was droopy and one eye wouldn't close. Now he's on high doses of prednisone and he's bouncing off the walls - his fits have decreased as well, so I'm enjoying the decrease of the oppositional behavior - but it has increased his appetite without impacting his willingness to eat anything other than hotdogs and apple sauce. And heaven forbid if I accidentally get ketchup on his bite before he is ready for it. and he still slept on the floor next to my side of the bed last night.......what age do these kids actually sleep through the night in their own beds? I was referred to an ear nose throat dr. who wanted to make sure he was on high dosages of steroids and his pediatrician also wanted him on the high dosage of steroids... so everyone is in agreement and no further follow up necessary unless his improvement isn't full/continuous.

Thanks. I need to write my questions down, I forgot that. My husband is coming and he's completely on board now, even marking some behaviors higher than I did. Yes lunch is planned and childcare is lined up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

How do you handle the stress of waiting for and then receiving answers from a behavioral evaluation? We go tomorrow for our results meeting and I'm finding it quite difficult to release the tension... my muscles ache from working out so hard in the last 2 days trying to forget everything, and I'm living with a near constant headache. When I snapped at my husband this morning over something stupid I realized I'm not handling this well. I'm afraid that she will tell us he's "fine" like his old pediatrician told us a couple years ago, and yet she already told us "he's got anxiety and some other stuff going on", so I know she's seeing SOMETHING, but I know it's more than anxiety and yet I feel like I'm overreacting to assume it's autism. And yet everything I'm seeing seems to point to autism. And yet that's a pretty serious diagnosis and means a huge shift in a lot of life... and yet it's not a huge shift because we are already trying to figure out what supports he needs to be successful and we need help with that, thus the evaluation... I'm going to go crazy I think. :( :banghead: :crying: I am out of wine. I need more I think. Oh and it doesn't help that we had to take him to the ER a couple days ago for partial face paralysis - turns out he has Bells Palsy and it was the most stressful ER visit I've ever had. He curled into the fetal position and refused to cooperate. Crying and screaming and fighting and in such a tight ball they were ruling out a stroke based on his ability to fight to stay curled up. There was a rocking chair in the room and while we waited for discharge paperwork, with the lights turned off, I watched him banging his head against the rocking chair to rock himself as he calmed down and I just wanted to curl into the fetal position myself and cry. The nurse took extra time to make sure I was ok, and to tell me that it was going to be ok. But I'm having trouble believing that last part. Is it really going to be ok? How do you do this?

I'll look into those medications, thanks for the recommendation. I realize that emergencies happen and we had an emergency fund of $1000. we just were hit with two issues at the same time - our van's power steering system failed and we had to spend $1500 on that... so our emergency fund is gone now. We have had the dog for something like 5 years now, and in the past whenever we've had a health issue we had the money in emergency to cover it. I just feel like we're backed into a corner now without any emergency fund left because of the van and am feeling frustrated - I don't want to go back to credit card debt, we worked hard to climb out of that!

No, the nice neighbor who hunts doesn't have dogs (And we didn't have fleas over the warmer months when we moved in - just when hunting season started and the deer started coming in). The neighbor on the other side isn't very approachable and has a has a pitbull that often comes to our yard...they live in a mobile home that looks like it's falling down and their yard is full of trash/junk. We have a partial fence along the property line and we're working on getting a fence across the front part to keep the dog out of our yard so I don't have to keep cleaning up that dog's poop. We're having trouble making much headway with pleasantries there. Even our plate of Christmas cookies was a bit of a dud.

We were using Frontline then we switched to Advantage when we got the fleas so badly the first time. We also used cap star which WORKS but it's daily and expensive!

We have a dog - and we keep her treated with a flea/tick medicine monthly without fail, take her to the vet yearly for vaccines, checkup, etc. We have a sinking fund to save for her vet visit and otherwise budget for her monthly flea meds and her food with a little leftover for the occasional treat/toy. We moved into a new home in August, when my husband got a new job, with a half-acre of land that backs up to woods. Our new neighbor is super nice, and hunts so our kids were fascinated as he started bringing deer home to hang and skin throughout hunting season. The same time the deer started coming, starting in November sometime, we found fleas on the dog. we flew into gear, started vacuuming twice daily, used our dog shampoo that helps kill fleas, got a flea powder and treated the entire house, washed every thing that ever touched the floor (blankets) and washed the dog bedding weekly on sanitizing wash. We used capstar and a powder on the dog, and in the end, after spending over $200 on treatments (all the money we had saved for her vet visit) we finally got rid of them. For 6 weeks we had no fleas or itching or anything. Then we had 2 warm days. so we all spent a ton of time outside. The next day she's itching again... and yes we have fleas again. My husband made the decision to give her the monthly flea medicine a week early, and I'm ready to cry. We can't afford to spend any more money on getting rid of fleas! And obviously they are in the yard, but how do we get rid of them there? I feel like a terrible dog owner - we are low income but had done our best to be financially prepared for caring for our dog, and then fleas are just killing us. And we weren't negligent, we used a monthly flea preventative religiously! And I can't help but feel like we are at a point where we just can't afford a dog right now. :( I don't know how we are going to afford to get rid of the fleas again and I don't know how we are going to come up with the money to take her to the vet come spring. And this follows a huge car repair bill that killed our emergency fund. What are we supposed to do now?? :(

I may not like that option because I don't like math, but you're right, it's a good option. And one that will work. I have to take an easy school week this week because of my sons behavioral eval, so it's a perfect time to work ahead of her and learn this stuff myself. I know I'm smart enough to learn it, I had a terrible base in math as a kid, which is where my difficulties now come from... The stuff I've learned as I teach number sense is astounding. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for this! It was a helpful reminder. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It is my oldest but she's an early bird and usually asleep by 8pm with wind down time and reading from 7-8. She is the one who turns out her light and goes to sleep that early, too, it's not my mandated bedtime for her. I'll have to talk to my husband, maybe he can do 30 min. With her in the evening and I can review problems the next day or something. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I might try to talk her dad into teaching her math... he just doesn't want to because he is only home from work a couple hours before the kids (We have 4) bedtime and would rather spend the time playing with them.

The college of redwoods pre algebra text. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We have finished Barton level 2 and are starting level 3 today! She's reading! like, actually reading! :party:

My dd9 has been doing prealgebra and loves it! She eats up each concept and opts to spend extra time solving the harder problems once she understands each concept. She talks about how much she loves it, and I love seeing her enjoy math since we've had a rocky road getting to this point. BUT I have to teach it to her. She can't just read the text and figure it out, because she learns best with discussion style teaching. Thrives on discussion style teaching. And I hate math! I barely understand the prealgebra and struggle to explain it even with the explicit teaching in the text and I get so frustrated when I can't explain it properly. I find myself avoiding math and now after Christmas break I am dreading getting back into it! And I have no money. Like, literally no money - we just spent our entire emergency savings on a new power steering assembly on our van. So I'm stuck with the math we've got and I've got to just suck it up and keep teaching it. :glare: Grumble.

My dr. is working to balance my hormones which have been out of whack for my entire adult life, basically, and we are using bioidentical hormones and some supplements and working to get everything in a more appropriate range. One of the "symptoms" of my hormone imbalance was what you might call atrophy of my chest area. I tend to be able to get away without wearing support, ever, because unless I'm wearing a tight shirt you can't tell. Well, as the hormone therapy is working, I'm finding that I'm growing... and am feeling a little overwhelmed at the prospect of buying bras because I don't know how much I'm going to grow or how long it might take, and doggone it bras are expensive!!! Anyone have any experience with this issue? Or any ideas on how to find a bra that's actually comfortable without having to buy a new one once a month while we are getting my hormones stabilized? I'm finding some of my easy outfits aren't as easy to get away with anymore now without the support, which has me a bit bummed.

yes, I found a place near me that takes our insurance for ABA but I have to have a diagnosis first and they won't evaluate him. I've spent several weeks trying to figure out how the process works because it took forever to get people to call me back! Yes, I homeschool too - if I allow him to be self-directed he doesn't throw fits. If I impose on him with requests or try to get him to do something I've got a 50/50 chance of a fit. Yesterday he was fine until dinner, which he promptly threw a fit and ran away before even sitting down. Our 9 year old was able to talk him back to the table and he ate the entire dinner, which was nothing short of miraculous! Then he started finger flicking his cheek while talking about wanting to tell Nana and Gramps on skype that he ate dinner...followed later by him avoiding skype the entire time we were on. I had to call them back after saying goodbye when he ran to the computer a minute too late to talk to them. But trying to talk him into coming sooner caused him to shut down - grunts, turning his head away, running away with a car to play with. ...and at the moment he has forced himself behind me in my chair, pushing on my back with his legs and crying softly "no sit" over and over because I told him he can't have a hot dog right now.

The concept that autistic behavior is human behavior is something I learned when my older daughter when to OT. We used the How does your Engine Run program with her (and I've tried it with my son but it kind of failed miserably) and I realized how much I do to regulate my own engine, but just do it in a more "appropriate" way. Honestly - regarding why I allow him to spend so much alone time in his bed when I suspect autism? It's because I don't know what to do. I am overwhelmed and in need of direction and when I allow him to spend his time self-directed, I have fewer fits. He spends a lot of time playing, too, and I add sensory integration as often as I can with jumping and swinging and other typed of activities as suggested by an OT. ... I got interrupted and am on the phone now, sorry if this seems disjointed and unfinished!

I'm filling out the paperwork for my son's eval (he's 4, turning 5 end of Jan. his eval is the first week of January - I keep willing the phone to ring so that she can get us in sooner, but at least it's on the books). And as such I've been noticing little things that my son does that I've never paid attention to before, like when he is flicking his fingers against his cheek in a repetitive manner... it's subtler than "hand flapping" but... Anyways I started thinking today about how he will lay on his bed on his tummy and rub on his lovie.... the Dr. told us this was normal behavior when our eldest daughter did this (she said they're too young to get pleasure out of it but didn't really give us much other than to not worry about it...). The dr. said that it's not a thing they necessarily need to grow out of but that it's important to teach children privacy and only in bed, etc. as they grow older. Our daughter grew out of it, but I don't remember what age - it was kind of gradual and she's 9 now. It seems to be a bedtime thing, often, and some days, like today, he spends a lot of time in his bed. Does this behavior rate in the category of stimming? Should I include it in the paperwork? Or is the Dr. right that it's "normal" behavior? BTW: we don't go to this Dr. anymore - and she is the reason we are only now getting around to the evaluation. She told us his behaviors were normal, even when I voiced concern at appointment after appointment. My husband believed her for a long time until I was able to prove to him that he was not outgrowing behaviors that he should have and he is now seeing how different our 2 year old responds to the same types of things and he agreed to an eval. Thus my wondering if her advice on the rubbing is accurate.

Thank you, this is very encouraging!

Yes, it is my understanding that this clinic can diagnose Autism, as well as other issues. They have behaviorists on staff, as well as psychologists and a variety of therapy/ABA/etc. available including the ability to come to our home if necessary. I will look for other good places and see what their waiting list looks like as well - thanks for the book recommendation. Thank you for these tricks - I'll look into that tincture! After church he was exhausted. He wasn't throwing fits, but was tired and needed down time. He is like this after most outings, but always more so after church. We pack a bag of matchbox cars and he plays contentedly with them ... I was feeling frustrated with that this past Sunday, because sitting on the floor playing instead of going to class was categorizing me as the crazy lax mom who can't get her kid to go to class. No one says that or criticizes me, but I guess that's why getting a diagnosis would help, then I'd have an "excuse" so to speak, to bend the rules. And I'd feel better about bending them. I hate that nagging feeling that I'm being so lax with him that it's allowing the behaviors. (This is my MILs opinion and things got REALLY heated when I brought up the possibility of an evaluation - this was months and months ago.) I'm to a point now where I know we have to own this as parents, and I'm ready for professional help to do so.

So we had a behavioral evaluation for our son (turns 5 in January) scheduled for August, but it got canceled for a couple reasons... then his behavior began to improve so we put off rescheduling. I'm reaching a breaking point again as his behavior is spiraling down again, and am waiting for a call back to get on the schedule for mid January. I am struggling with feeling like I'm failing at this somehow. In church yesterday he didn't want to go to his class at all, I had to physically carry him (and unpry his fingers from the door jam) into his class, then we sat in the corner of the room, him on my lap unresponsive. The last 10 minutes of class I was able to get him to the table to do the craft. He then later in the morning had a complete melt-down and shut down unresponsive again. Grunting, and turning angrily away from anyone who said anything to him. He stayed curled in a ball on the floor under the chairs in church for probably 20 minutes, until the band started up (and we had brass up front this Sunday, and he loves watching the brass players) so he stood watching, keeping his distance from any contact with me. And this is typical behavior again. I feel like I walk on egg-shells all the time, never knowing when the next issue will happen, and am at a loss for how to manage the behavior. I'm reading the book Freeing Your Child From Anxiety by Tamar Chansky, but only having small success with it. I just don't understand why the behavior had begun to improve, and now we're spiraling downward again. My husband and I have racked our brains to find anything that we changed - but the downward spiral started related to NOTHING. not the time change (which happened several weeks later), not candy from halloween (which was again a good week or so later), no changes in diet, no change in routine, no change in belongings, no change in siblings, no change in teachers at church, no change in sleep habits, no change in clothing (we figured out he doesn't like polyester and changed to 100% cotton, but several weeks after the downward spiral started). *sigh* I guess we just need to have the evaluation done.

I'd been beating my head against a wall after completing Barton 1 because I was too cheap to get level 2, and was trying to make a variety of other curricula work. I finally sold enough stuff to buy levels 2 and 3. Yesterday I started level 2 with her. Today - we actually had FUN as we played games and finished lesson 1. And I saw so many encouraging things - like how she wanted to read - and was working out the words faster than me when I would pause before reading something during our game time. To see my daughter smile while working on reading is AMAZING! I'm sure we have many more difficult days ahead, but I feel so relieved to have the tools that I know will work. And am so encouraged by the progress I've seen in just the past 2 days of getting back to the Barton method.

Thank you for taking the time to check that for me, I appreciate your help and concern! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you for the thoughts, I'm glad I got opinions on both sides so that I could see the different perspectives of the situation. The child was probably outside for no more than 5 minutes, and it was on a small city street. My concern is not that he would have been snatched by someone, but that he would get hit by a car. His behavior escalated from the time outside but another mom was able to get him calmed down and participate in the rest of the evening. This child is not a runner, but hitter an biter and yes, I think there may be something clinical going on with the child (but also with the mom). One of my concerns is that the home life is a question mark for me, dad never comes to anything. (Not saying anything bad about the dad, I just don't know him or how supportive he is for mom). Some of the history that I have been told about this kid include some other sort of eye-raising things, like leaving him unbuckled in a running car which enabled him to drive the car through a nearby fence... but no one was hurt and it was laughed off. I am honestly concerned about the child, and just wanted some perspective for what I saw as a disturbing situation. The way I saw it happen, it crossed a line for me, and I've seen a lot of "mean" parenting without being concerned for the child's wellbeing. I am going to talk to my husband about it again, and I might seek guidance from our church elders in how to handle the situation as well.

I didn't mean to suggest that she did. If what I said implies that, I apologize! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk